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Amish food is excellent!
Want to try some?
Visitors returning home from Lancaster often say one of their best memories is the Amish food. And rightly so, for the Plain People are well known for the quality and quantity of the food served in their homes and in Amish-style restaurants. The food is, in general, grown in their own farms and gardens and they don’t usually eat processed or commercially produced foods.
Studies have shown that their meals are reminiscent of a pre-World War II farm diet high in sugar and fat. Main meals are centered on hearty meat dishes of beef, pork, chicken, and dairy products. Homegrown vegetables – fresh, canned, or dried – are abundant and include (among others) corn, “red” beets, potatoes, peas, zucchini, rhubarb, green beans, lima beans, and cabbage. Oh, I almost forgot sauerkraut and scrapple (Fried cornmeal mush with sausage and liverwurst; it’s much better than it sounds.) Baked goods of wheat, oatmeal, and cornmeal are equally plentiful in breads, dumplings, biscuits, etc. As I said, Amish food is plentiful! Not enough? Then let’s add the usual relishes, chow-chow, pickled red beet eggs, pickles, cole slaw, and the other side dishes. Desserts include cookies, cakes, apple dumplings, faschnachts (very fattening donuts), and their famous fruit and specialty pies (particularly shoofly pie and whoopee pie). In addition to water, drinks include milk, lemonade, tea, and coffee. Are all of the above available at a typical Amish restaurant? Probably not, but many of them are. It isn’t fine dining and it’s not gourmet, but it is very tasty, well-prepared, wholesome, and comes in large quantities. There isn’t a lot of obesity in their culture, but that’s largely because they work in off. Enjoy your meal in one of their restaurants, but don’t overdo it unless you eat like that only rarely, or you too are going to work it off.
There are a number of places in the county offering traditional Amish food. Most seat guests family-style around a large table and, unless you're with a tour group or large party, you'll probably be seated with people you don't know. Don't let it bother you, everyone is there to have a good time and a good meal. Of the many restaurants three stand out. All take credit cards and reservations, and all have both the full family-style meals described above, and an a la carte menu.The first is the
Stoltzfus Farm Restaruant.
With seating for ninety it's much smaller than the other
two, so it provides a warmer, friendlier atmosphere. We recently had an a la carte lunch there and it was delicious. Joan said the wet-bottom shoofly pie was the best she had ever eaten. They also have a store in Intercourse near the restaurant that sells wonderful meat products to take home.
The next recommended place is the
Plain & Fancy Farm Restaruant.
With about 500 seats it can, and does, offer a wide choice of foods and has both full and a la carte meals. It's very popular with tour buses and is usually very busy. The third place we recommend is the
Good N' Plenty Restaurant.
Like Plain and Fancy it's large, with about 600 seats, and it too is busy and popular with tour buses and large groups. Both of the large places are very good and even though I haven't said much about them they are recommended.
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